This invention is concerned with improvements in or relating to work pick-up and/or handling apparatus such as may be used in automatically picking up, moving, and releasing workpieces with respect to different positions or stations in a repetitive manufacturing process. For example, such an apparatus may be used in loading and/or unloading a press in the manufacture of sheet metal pressings or stampings. In particular, the invention relates to such apparatus which is arranged to impart to work-supporting means of the apparatus, and so to a workpiece when held, a reciprocable linear movement.
One such apparatus is described in U.K. Patent specification No. 1,395,058. That known apparatus comprises a linearly-reciprocable wheeled carriage for supporting any one of a variety of work-handling attachments. The carriage is constrained by guide rails to remain in a constant orientation as it is reciprocated to and fro along a linear path. The carriage is pivotally connected to a crank lever which, in turn, is pivotally connected to a crank arm, the three pivot axes being in parallel and the effective lengths of the crank arm and crank lever, measured between the pivot axes, being equal. By means of a geared connection in the ratio of 2:1 from a stationary gear on the pivot axis of the crank arm to a gear which is fast with the crank lever on the pivot axis of the crank lever, it is provided that linear motion is imparted to the carriage upon rotation of the crank arm about its pivot axis, the linear path of the carriage being intersected by the pivot axis of the crank arm.